Timothy Stephens
Curriculum vitae

Personal summary

I am a computational biologist working on understanding the forces that govern the interactions between organisms in ecologically critical environments, such as coral reefs, and the forces that drive major evolutionary transitions, such as the one that gave rise to the first photosynthetic Eukaryotas.

Contact information

left Left
Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Rutgers University, USA
timothystephens.com
TimothyStephens

Education

year what
2012 — 2015 Bachelor of Biotechnology, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland
2015 — 2015 Honours, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland
2016 — 2019 PhD, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland

Research Experience

year what
2012 — 2013 Undergraduate Research Project, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland
2013 — 2013 Paid Research Assistant, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland
2014 — 2014 Undergraduate Researcher Project, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland
2015 — 2015 Honours Project, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland
2016 — 2019 PhD, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland
2019 — present Post Doctoral Associate, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Rutgers University

Teaching experience

year what
2012 — 2014 CASPiE Tutor
University of Queensland
Duties included guiding undergraduate chemistry students through an advanced set of research-focused practicals, with the aim of developing their critical and experimental thinking.
2013 Science Mentor
University of Queensland
Duties included organizing and running first year science student introduction and social engagement events designed to inform students about study/research opportunities available at The University of Queensland.
2013 — 2014 Peer Assisted Study Session (PASS) Tutor
University of Queensland
Duties included planning and leading multiple weekly tutorial sessions, each comprising 20-30+ students.
2016 — 2017 Practical Tutor
University of Queensland
Duties included assisting students with the completion of set questions and marking of assignments.
2018 Head Practical Tutor
University of Queensland
Duties included designing and developing assessment material for the course and organising marking of assignments.
2020 — 2022 Guest lecturer
Rutgers University
Conducted lectures on de novo next-generation sequencing, genome and transcriptome sequencing, and metagenomics in a join undergraduate and postgraduate course titled Fundamentals of Microbial Genomics. Also assisted in designing and marking student exam questions and students oral presentations.

Professional development

year_begin what
2017 UQ Idea Hub, University of Queensland
2017 Research Commercialisation Workshop, University of Queensland

Awards and honours

year_begin what
2011 Merit Scholarship for academic achievement, University of Queensland
2012 Selected for the Advanced Study Program in Science (ASPinS; based on academic merit), University of Queensland
2012 Deans Commendation for Academic Excellence (achieved a GPA over 6.6), University of Queensland
2016 Research Training Program (RTP) scholarship, University of Queensland
2016 Top poster prize at the IMB Research Higher Degree Student Symposium, University of Queensland
2017 Won best pitch prize at the UQ Idea Hub, University of Queensland
2018 Registration award for Society for Molecular Biology & Evolution (SMBE) 2018, SMBE
2021 2019 Deans Award for Outstanding Higher Degree by Research Theses, University of Queensland

Publications

year ref2print
2022 Davies S. W., Gamache M. H., Howe-Kerr L., Kriefall N.G., Baker A.C., Banaszak A., Bay L., Bellantuono A.J., Chan C. X., Claar D.C., Coffroth M.A., Cunning R., del Campo J., Frommlet J. C., Fuess L. E., Goulet T. L.,Hoadley K. D., Hume B. C. C., Kemp D. W., Kitchen S. A., LaJeunesse T. C., Lin S., McIlroy S., McMinds R., Nitschke M. R., Oakley C. A., Peixoto R. S., Prada C., Putnam H. M., Quigley K., Reich H. G., Reimer J. D., Rosales S., Saad O. S., Santos S. R., Shoguchi E., Stephens T. G., Strader M. E., Suggett D. J., Swain T. D., Tran C., Traylor-Knowles N., Voolstra C. R., Weis V., Wright R., Yamashita H., Ziegler M., Correa A. M. S., and Parkinson J. E. Building consensus around the assessment and interpretation of symbiodiniaceae diversity. Under review in PeerJ, 2022. [Preprint]
2022 Bhattacharya D., Etten J. V., Benites L. F., and Stephens T. G. Endosymbiotic ratchet accelerates divergence after organelle origin. Under review in BioEssays, 2022.
2022 Meng Z., Williams A., Liau P., Stephens T. G., Drury C., Chiles E. N., Su X., Javanmard M., and Bhattacharya D. Development of a portable toolkit to diagnose coral thermal stress. Scientific Reports, 12:14398, 2022. [URL]
2022 Benites L. F., Stephens T. G., and Bhattacharya D. Multiple waves of viral invasions in Symbiodiniaceae algal genomes. Accepted for publication in Virus Evolution, 2022. [Preprint]
2022 *Gabr A., *Stephens T. G., and Bhattacharya D. Loss of key endosymbiont genes may facilitate early host control of the chromatophore in Paulinella. iScience, 25:104974, 2022. [URL] *Co-first authorship
2022 Stephens T. G., Lee J., Jeong Y., Yoon H. S., Putnam H. M., Majerova E., and Bhattacharya D. High-quality genome assembles from key Hawaiian coral species. Accepted for publication in GigaScience, 2022.
2022 Bhattacharya D., Stephens T. G., Tinoco A., Richmond R., and Cleves P. A. Life on the edge: Hawaiian model for coral evolution. Limnology and Oceanography, 67:1976-1985, 2022. [URL]
2022 *Calatreva V., *Stephens T. G., Gabr A., Grossman A. R., and Bhattacharya D. Retrotransposition facilitated the establishment of a primary plastid in the thecate amoeba Paulinella. PNAS, 119:e2121241119, 2022. [URL] *Co-first authorship
2022 *Gabr A., *Stephens T. G., and Bhattacharya D. Hypothesis: Trans-splicing generates evolutionary novelty in the photosynthetic amoeba Paulinella. Journal of Phycology, 58:392-405, 2022. [URL] *Co-first authorship
2022 Dougan K. E., Gonzalez-Pech R. A., Stephens T. G., Shah S., Chen Y., Ragan M. A., Bhattacharya D., and Chan C. X. Genome-powered classification of microbial eukaryotes: focus on coral algal symbionts. Trends in Microbiology, 30:831-840, 2022. [URL]
2022 Gabr A., Zournas A., Stephens T. G., Dismukes G., and Bhattacharya D. Evidence for a robust photosystem II in the photosynthetic amoeba Paulinella. New Phytologist, 234:934-945, 2022. [URL]
2021 Stephens T. G., Gabr A., Calatreva V., Grossman A. R., and Bhattacharya D. Why is primary endosymbiosis so rare?. New Phytologist, 231:1693-1699, 2021. [URL]
2021 Bernard G., Stephens T. G., Gonzalez-Pech R. A., and Chan C. X. Inferring phylogenomic relationship of microbes using scalable alignment-free methods. Methods in Molecular Biology, 2242:69-76, 2021. [URL]
2021 Jacobus A. P., Stephens T. G., Youssef P., Gonzalez-Pech R., Ciccotosto-Camp M. M., Dougan K. E., Chen Y., Basso L. C., Frazzon J., Chan C. X., and Gross J. Comparative genomics supports that Brazilian bioethanol Saccharomyces cerevisiae comprise a unified group of domesticated strains related to cacha<U+008D>a spirit yeasts. Frontiers in Microbiology, 12:644089, 2021. [Preprint] [URL]
2021 Gonzalez-Pech, R. A., Stephens T. G., Chen Y., Mohamed A. R., Cheng Y., Shah S., Dougan K. E., Fortuin M. D. A., Lagorce R., Burt D. W., Bhattacharya D., Ragan M. A., and Chan C. X. Comparison of 15 dinoflagellate genomes reveals extensive sequence and structural divergence in family Symbiodiniaceae and genus Symbiodinium. BMC Biology, 19:73, 2021. [Preprint] [URL]
2021 Williams A., Pathmanathan J. S., Stephens T. G., Su X., Chiles E. N., Conetta D., Putnam H. M., and Bhattacharya D. Multi-omic characterization of the thermal stress phenome in the stony coral Montipora capitata. PeerJ, 9:e12335, 2021. [Preprint] [URL]
2020 Lhee D., Lee J., Ettahi K., Cho C. H., Ha J., Chan Y., Zelzion U., Stephens T. G., Price D. C., Gabr A., Nowack E. C. M., Bhattacharya D., and Yoon H. S. Amoeba genome reveals dominant host contribution to plastid endosymbiosis. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 38:344-357, 2020. [URL]
2020 Stephens T. G., Gonzalez-Pech R. A., Cheng Y., Mohamed A. R., Burt D. W., Bhattacharya D., Ragan M. A., and Chan C. X. Genomes of the dinoflagellate Polarella glacialis encode tandemly repeated single-exon genes with adaptive functions. BMC Biology, 18:56, 2020. [Preprint] [URL] Featured by IMB News
2019 Chen Y., Gonzalez-Pech R. A., Stephens T. G., Bhattacharya D., and Chan C. X. Evidence that inconsistent gene prediction can mislead analysis of dinoflagellate genomes. Journal of Phycology, 56:6-10, 2019. [Preprint] [URL]
2018 Liu H., Stephens T. G., Gonzalez-Pech R. A., Beltran V. H., Lapeyre B., Bongaerts P., Cooke I., Aranda M., Bourne D. G., Foret S., Miller D. J., van Oppen M. J. H., Voolstra C. R., Ragan M.A., and Chan C.X. Symbiodinium genomes reveal adaptive evolution of functions related to coral-dinoflagellate symbiosis. Communications Biology, 1:95, 2018. [Preprint] [URL] Featured by multiple outlets: MB News, GBRF, Video Feature, IMB 2018 year in review video,
2018 Lee J, Yang E. C., Graf L., Yang J. H., Qiu H., Zelzion U., Chan C. X., Stephens T. G., Weber A. P. M., Boo G. H., Boo S. M., Kim K. M., Shin Y., Jung M., Lee S. J., Yim H. S., Lee J. Y., Bhattacharya D., and Yoon H. S. Analysis of the draft genome of the red seaweed Gracilariopsis chorda provides insights into genome size evolution in Rhodophyta. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 35:1869-1886, 2018. [URL]
2018 *Gonzalez-Pech R. A., *Stephens T. G., and Chan C. X. Commonly misunderstood parameters of NCBI BLAST and important considerations for users. Bioinformatics, 35:2697-6998, 2018. [URL] *Co-first authorship [F1000 recommended]
2018 Stephens T. G., Ragan M. A., Bhattacharya D., and Chan C. X. Core genes in diverse dinoflagellate lineages include a wealth of conserved dark genes with unknown functions. Scientific Reports, 8:17175, 2018. [URL]
2016 Stephens T. G., Bhattacharya D., Ragan M. A., and Chan C. X. PhySortR: a fast, flexible tool for sorting phylogenetic trees in R. PeerJ, 4:e2038, 2016. [Preprint] [URL]

Talks

year_begin what
2017 Stephens T. G., Bhattacharya D., Ragan M. A. and Chan C. X. Insights into coral reef symbiosis from the genome of cold-adapted algae. EMBL Australia Postgraduate Symposium 2017, 29th November1st December 2017, Sydney, Australia.
2018 Stephens T. G., Bhattacharya D., Ragan M. A., and Chan C. X. Polarella genomics: understanding the evolutionary transition to algal symbiosis and cold adaptation. Botany Department, Biosciences Institute, University of Sao Paulo. 14th December 2018, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
2018 Stephens T. G., Bhattacharya D., Ragan M. A., and Chan C. X. Polarella genomics: understanding the evolutionary transition to algal symbiosis and cold adaptation. 2nd Bioenergy Workshop, UNESP-USP-UNICAMP Integrated Postgraduate Program in Bioenergy, Institute for Research in Bioenergy, State University of Sao Paulo (UNESP). 6th December 2018, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
2019 Stephens T. G., Bhattacharya D., Ragan M. A., and Chan C. X. Polarella genomics: understanding the evolutionary transition to algal symbiosis and cold adaptation. Joint Academic Microbiology Seminars (JAMS). 9th April 2019, Brisbane, Australia.
2021 Stephens T. G., Calatrava V., Gabr A., Grossman A., and Bhattacharya D. Insights into the evolution of a primary endosymbiosis through analysis of the Paulinella genome. 12th International Phycological Congress. 2226th March 2021, Chile.
2021 Stephens T. G., Calatrava V., Gabr A., Grossman A., and Bhattacharya D. Insights into the evolution of a primary endosymbiosis through analysis of the Paulinella genome. 75th Annual Meeting of the Phycological Society of America. 1322nd July 2021, online.
2022 Stephens T. G., Etten J. V., McDermott T., and Bhattacharya D. Analysis of environmental meta-omics data from the extremophilic red algae Cyanidiophyceae. Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting. 1420th May, 2022, Grand Rapids, USA.
2022 Stephens T. G., Strand E. L., Putnam H. M., and Bhattacharya D. Differences in ploidy and the prevalence of clonal propagation between Montipora capitata and Pocillopora acuta from K?ne?ohe Bay, Hawai?i. 15th International Coral Reef Symposium. 38th July 2022, Bremen, Germany.

Poster presentations

year_begin what
2018 Stephens T. G., Bhattacharya D., Ragan M. A. and Chan C. X. Polarella genomics: understanding cold adaptation and evolutionary transition to symbiosis in dinoflagellates. Society for Molecular Biology & Evolution (SMBE) annual meeting 2018, 812th July 2018, Yokohama, Japan.
2016 Stephens T. G., Chan C. X., Ragan M. Polarella genomics: understanding the evolutionary transition to algal symbiosis and cold adaptation, IMB Research Higher Degree Student Symposium, 13th Jul 2016, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

Grants

year_begin what
2018 UQ-FAPESP Strategic Research Fund SPRINT (2018/15159-9), $20,000 (~USD $14,000)
Integrated genomic approaches to understand stress tolerance in bioethanol-producing yeasts and coral reef symbionts
Principal Investigators: Cheong Xin Chan (UQ) and Jeferson Gross (State University of Sao Paulo), Jointly funded by University of Queensland (UQ) and Sao Paulo State Foundation (FAPESP)
2022 Core Facility Utilization Application, $5,000 USD
Funds for sequencing of coral microbiome samples.
Principal Investigators: Debashish Bhattacharya (Rutgers University), Rutgers University
2022 Center for Nutrition, Microbiome, and Health Small Grant FY-22, $2,000 USD
Characterizing the coral microbiome biogeography across colonies and reefs.
Principal Investigators: Debashish Bhattacharya (Rutgers University), Center for Nutrition, Rutgers University

Media coverage

year_begin what
2020 Our paper “Why is primary endosymbiosis so rare?” covered by Rutgers Newsroom
2021 Our paper “Third Party Tracking in the Mobile Ecosystem” covered by Rutgers Today
2022 Our paper “Retrotransposition facilitated the establishment of a primary plastid in the thecate amoeba Paulinella” covered by Rutgers Research
2022 Article on our short film “The Coral Holobiont Response to Climate Change” which won Best Trailer in the Kiez Berlin Film Festival. Covered by Rutgers Research